Monday, October 26, 2015

...Before we highlight what's coming up for the next two weeks, let's recap last week's Center meet at Spring Lake, where MCHS Swept all 4 races! Amazing pack performances in both Varsity Races, best race execution this year so far!

LINK to the MCHS XC 2015 Facebook page with cool short video of MCHS top varsity Boys finishers, also lots of pictures

...Looking ahead to this week (week #11) and the next week (week #12):

Week #11 (this week):

Mon: Workout at Montecito ParkTues: Park EZ pace recovery runWed: Tempo Run on the Track (Split workout: Top 14-15 Boys and top 11-12 Girls will meet 7PM; everyone else will run at regular practice time)Thu: Park EZ recovery runFri: Intervals/speed training at Spring LakeSat: Need 24-28 athlete volunteers for the Healdsburg 1/2 Marathon aid stations; looking for 1 parent to help drive from MCHS to Healdsburg/Geyserville (our team earns $1500 for this!):
-Aid Station #1) Leave MCHS 6:00AM, be at Canyon Rd/Stefani Rd by 6:30, done by 8:45
-Aid Station #5) Leave MCHS 6:30AM, be at Mauritson Winery by 7:00, done by 10:30
-Aid Station #7) Leave MCHS 7:00AM, be at Geyserville Ave. Mile 11.9 by 7:30 done by 11:00
-Also looking for 5-6 more athletes/adults to help with finish chute/hand out medals 7AM-12:30PMLINK to event website

Week #12 (next week):

Mon-Thu: Workouts at MCHS and Parks/deatils TBDFri: 2015 NBL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!
-Athletes released from school 12:30, Bus leaves MCHS 12:45
-Race Schedule: First race is JV Boys at 2PM, then JV Girls, then Varsity Boys, finish with Varsity Girls, then NBL Pennant and Medal Award Ceremony will be ~4-4:30PM.
-Parents, please plan on sticking around for the award ceremony!-IMPORTANT! -Need 5 Parents to help w/finish chute responsibilities and course monitoring, please contact Greg if you can help!
-OHANA NIGHT CELEBRATION 6-8PM Host Luise Page and Carol Ahern after the NBL Championships

NBL XC Finals History / MCHS Legacy: JV Boys: Have been top team since 2004JV Girls: Have won all titles since 2003*Varsity Boys: Have won last 3 years in row (and 9 of the last 12 years)*Varsity Girls: Have won title last 12 years in a row)
*Varsity Races are limited to only 7 runners, the rest will run in the unlimited JV races

NBL Championships Nov 6, 2015 Outlook:JV Races: With the limit on the top 7 for the Varsity rosters and the depth in quality for our team this year, this should make for some very impressive team performances for MCHS! Keeping in mind, some of our runners who will not make the top 7 MC Varsity, would be very solid Varsity contributors at other local schools, outstanding runners in their own right, for sure! Also, be aware, some athletes are still trying to make our Varsity standard (sub 17:00 for Boys and sub 21:00 for Girls) on the Spring Lake course. ...Please show up early to cheer on our JV teams!Varsity Races: For the Boys, Santa Rosa has been a very tough opponent all season long, with the MC Boys winning by the slimmest of margins in both Center Meet races this year. We're expecting to race a full roster and looking forward to seeing what they can do; either way, it promises to be a tight race! With the new NBL scoring format, if Rosa wins the NBL championship meet, they would win the NBL Pennant outright, so our Boys have to bring it! For the MC Girls, Santa Rosa handed them their first NBL lost (by 1 point!) in 13 years; it took Rosa the best team time they've ran since '98 to beat the Pumas. ...Hampered without Rosa's #2 runner finishing, our MC Girls beat Rosa by 18 points in the 10/21/15 Center Meet, but this past weekend, the Rosa girls looked impressive, winning their Varsity Race on a tough Mt. SAC course in L.A.

IMPORTANT: MCHS still needs 2 parents to volunteer (1 at the finish chute and 1 more as a course marker near the 1 mile mark during the race), please contact Greg (text or e-mail) directly if you can be at Spring Lake by no later than 3:30 to help out! -To get to the mile mark, we'll need to leave the starting line NO LATER than 3:30.

Everyone NOT going to Clovis will be at practice on Friday, same time as usual, 3:30 start with Coach Matt, Coach Marion and special guest coach, MCHS Alumni, now racing for Lewis and Clark College, Ryan Nguyen!

...No race this weekend, so everyone enjoy a nice long EZ pace or OD (over distance) pace run on your own and be ready for a hard workout on Monday :)

-WHAT? Our first NBL Center meet!-WHERE? Spring Lake Park-WHO ARE WE RACING? We will be competing against all other 8 schools from the North Bay League: Newman, Rancho Cotate, Montgomery, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Windsor, Casa Grande-RACE SCHEDULE (Athletes dismissed from class 2PM, Bus leaves MCHS 2:15, please let Greg know if you are staying in class for a later race and getting there on your own):
3:45 JV Boys
4:20 JV Girls
5:00 Varsity Boys
5:30 Varsity Girls-IMPORTANT! MONTGOMERY IS HOSTING THIS MEET, BUT MC NEEDS TO HELP! GREG NEEDS 2 MORE PARENT VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH THE FINISH LINE OR WORK AS COURSE MARKERS (SUPER EASY!); PLEASE RSVP TO GREG DIRECTLY VIA E-MAIL OR TEXT TO GREG AND PLAN ON MEETING AT THE STARTING LINE (NEAR THE SPRING LAKE BOAT DOCK) AT 3PM.

EVERYONE: Expecting 400+ runners and lots of spectators, please plan on getting there early and be prepared to pay a park entrance fee! (starting line at the Boat Dock)

DONATIONS! Thanks to all the families that donated to our program, we achieved our goal this year fundraising! -Please be aware, I just had our first opportunity to deposit checks via our PAB (Puma Athletics Boosters) meeting a week ago, so checks are just getting deposited last week and more to be deposited this week.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE JENSEN FAMILY FOR DONATING $1500 TO SPONSOR OUR WARM-UP SHIRTS!www.novavine.com

COMPETITION SCHEDULE FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON: ...Here's a glance at the remaining MCHS XC schedule. ...Only 5 weeks left till NBL Championships!!!

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Clarifying my announcement at practice today, we will NOT be going to the Crystal Springs Invite NEXT SATURDAY, 10/10/15. ...Instead we will be taking 4 Varsity/Frosh-Soph teams to the Clovis Invite with the following athletes named to the "frozen roster", remaining spots will be determined by the NBL Center Meet NEXT WEDNESDAY at Spring Lake.

Clovis Invite plan: -Get out of school Friday, 10/9 at Noon, then drive to Fresno, stay overnight, then race Saturday, 10/10 in the AM, should be back at MCHS by ~3:30. Here's the race rosters and corresponding race shedule: